Friday, August 31, 2012

PROLOGUE
The history of the concentration camp at Riga (Kaiserwald) [very little
is known or published,sic] marks the end of the National-Socialistic
(Nazi-German) Jewish policies in Latvia. It had started with the
extermination on Latvian territory shortly after the German invasion of
the Soviet Union in June 1941. A hateful and violent mood of the
population enabled the new "Occupation Power" of anti-Jewish pogroms by
the kindling the attitude of locals in the cities. These attacks
culminated in the planned mass murder of Latvian Jews, by the use, of
the so called Aufräumungs Abteilungen of Group A, the German Security
Police and Security Service (SD) who had overall responsibility, but
without the help of Latvian collaborators in the set time frame would
not have been possible. The Germans were not the only ones who wanted to
exterminate the Jews. Jews had been discriminated against for centuries,
the Latvians finally had the power to act out their hatred of the race.
The Jews could not trust anyone, especially the local authorities and
government. If they had known this perhaps they may have seen the truth
earlier, but unfortunately they had faith in humanity.

Mass shooting outside Riga

In October 1941, on direction of the German Military Authorities the
'Great Riga Ghetto', was established and its inhabitants, Latvian-Jewish
families, were a month later almost completely eliminated. Security
Police and SD including Latvian auxiliary police officers shot and
killed the inhabitants of the Riga Ghetto in the surrounding woods and
buried the bodies in the previously dug pits by Russian prisoners of
war. This created space for numerous incoming deportation trains in 1942
from the German Reich. The new ghetto dwellers, and the remaining Jews,
mostly young men had to work for the German war economy as forced labourers.

A Jew being dragged away by Latvian soldiers in the Riga ghetto

NOTE: [Forced labourer is called a person under threat of a penalty or
other means to perform work expected of him/her against their will . It
is - with blurred transitions - the severest form of work requirement.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defined in 1930 in Article 2
paragraph 1 of the Convention concerning forced or compulsory labour, as
involuntary work or service which is exercised under threat of
punishment. It does not include, according to Paragraph 2 of the
Convention: military service, normal civic obligations, prison labour
(which could perhaps legally include KZ inmates) or labour necessary in
cases of force majeure and work that serves the immediate benefit of the
community. The ILO estimates the number of people who were forced to do
this type of work in Europe during WW II to about 360,000. sic]
The elderly, children and the sick, in short, those unable to work
(Arbeitsunfähige) were selected and killed in the surrounding woods.
This phase lasted until the deportation of all Jews from Riga and up to
their accommodation into barracks of the concentration camp Kaiserwald
and its satellite camps from July 1943.
The KZ Kaiserwald received due to its location near the central
administration of the Reichskommissariat Ostland in the city a special
place in the system of Nazi concentration camps. It was operated as a
nerve centre for all satellite camps, which was a decisive factor in the
murder of the Jews of the Baltic States, either through hard physical
labour or inhuman degrading treatment of the prisoners which was the
principle method of extermination, of the SS leadership in Latvia.

Houses along a street
inside the Riga Ghetto

The establishment of Kaiserwald falls into the period when the
extermination camps in occupied Poland were closed and the system of
concentration camps was extended again elsewhere. As a result from
mid-1943 new camps in the eastern territories conquered in 1941 were
established. Kaiserwald was formally under the jurisdiction of the WVHA
headed by Oswald Pohl. It had, however, in reality, to the existing
concentration camps in the Reich very little in common: In its function
it was primarily intended as a collection and transit camp for Jews. The
structure of the main camp was indeed very similar to the existing
camps, but because of staff shortages its main Administration was
restricted to five sections. The system of Prison Functionaries was also
modified in its application of "Self-governing"
(Häftlingsselbstverwaltung) . For these purposes, political and criminal
prisoners from KZ Sachsenhausen were transferred, who should take over
the "inmate Administration".
The German-Russian front line made it inevitable to close the
concentration camp in the fall of 1944. The prisoners were evacuated by
ship to Gdansk (Danzig). From there, the SS separated the female
prisoners and sent them into a number of satellite camps which were
under KZ Stutthof administration. The male prisoners were marched under
heavy guard further into the interior of the Reich and in the direction
of Buchenwald for relocation. Some 14,000 Jewish prisoners and Russian
POWs were shipped from Riga and Libau to Danzig. Old, sick and children
stayed behind and were killed by death squads in the forests of Riga. In
January 1945, the second phase of the evacuation took place, in which
the inmates of the Stutthof camp complex, including many former
Kaiserwald prisoners, were further evacuated deeper into the German
Reich. The German camps on Latvian soil of the former Soviet Union
territory, there is very little knowledge, and remains largely unexplored.

Map of Riga Ghetto

SATELLITE CAMPS
The deportation and allocation of prisoners housed in the Riga area and
it's surrounding sub-camps occurred mainly from there, after the
registration of newly arrived transports. Due to disease, death, or
selections in the satellite camps there was usually a shortfall of
manpower, which was offset by the availability of able-bodied prisoners
from Kaiserwald. This camp served as a control centre and management of
all prisoners. The return to the main camp (Stammlager Riga) occurred
only during severe illness, or a change of work allocation and finally
the imminent closure of a satellite camp. Exact figures on the prisoners
in the camps do not exist. In March 1944, on the assumption that the
average strength of inmates in the main camp amounted to 2000, one can
estimate at a prisoner population of about 9000 in all the satellite
camps. In the summer of 1944, the SS decided to evacuate for security
reasons all satellite camps in stages. They selected the elderly, sick,
weak, and children and shot them. All others were taken into the Riga
main camp and commenced in October 1944 with the the total clearing and
evacuation of the prisoners. There were seven field camps further
outside Riga and nine camps in the immediate vicinity.
THE STAFF STRUCTURE
Knowledge about the SS-staff in the camp is very limited. Only 28
SS-members could be identified by their names. How many people in total
belonged to the Camp Administration or to the Guards can not be
ascertained. The Camp Staff was divided, as in other camps, in the
command personal and the security forces. Comparing the internal
structure and functioning of the headquarters of Kaiserwald with other
concentration camps, it is clear that these were different from the
usual standards: So the availability of staff employed in the usual five
departments was restricted. On the one hand this was due to the nearby
front line, which in terms of human resources dictated its policy. With
the approach of the front began also the reduction and the transfer of
staff from the camp back into the Reich, which led to further personnel
hardship. Even in the early days of Kaiserwald, the camp did not fill
all necessary positions, so that some SS-man carried more than one
important function in the camp, [in other words they doubled up, sic].
Secondly Kaiserwald acted as collection and transit camp and especially
at managerial level, however this area was strengthened, staff wise, at
the beginning 1944.

Removing a dead prisoner of war, winter 1941/42

Camp commander was Albert Sauer, who was born on 17 August 1898 in
Misdroy on the island of Wollin [at the outlet of the river Oder, where
I spent my youth, sic] which is in today's Poland. Back in 1931, he
joined both the NSDAP (Nazi Party) and the SS and after being unemployed
for a short period, became a full-time member of the Guard Unit
V-Brandenburg, and served in the KZ Columbia House Berlin. That same
year, his appointment came through and he was made Captain
(Hauptsturmführer). Promoted, he became commander of KZ Sulza. On 1
April 1936 this followed by another step up as the second officer in
charge of the concentration camp Sachsenhausen. Upon recommendation of
the inspector of concentration camps, and the leader of the
concentration camp guard units, Theodor Eicke, Sauer took over from
August 1938 until February 1939, as the commander of the newly
established camp of Mauthausen. In April 1943, Himmler appointed him
Kommandant of Kaiserwald. Just before the war's end, Sauer was killed
[[probably in action, sic] on May 3, 1945 in the vicinity of Berlin.
The management of labour assignments and control of the registration
card index was taken over by SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Hans Brüner.
He was also deputy camp commander. His daily presence in the camp, left
many prisoners with the impression that he was the real commander. While
serving as assistant to the commander, it is likely that Brüner was also
acting as the protective custody camp leader. This function was not
always fulfilled in camps of the Baltic States because of manpower
shortages and often not at all, or of a person that simultaneously held
other functions. Brüner's predecessor in Kaiserwald was a not very well
known member of the SS by the name of Kauffeld. As a member of the Camp
Administration Brüner was involved in selection of work details in the
Stammlager(Main Camp) and in the satellite camps. Twice a day, he led
this type of sorting at Kaiserwald and separated prisoners for the
so-called "Stützpunkt"(work base support). These "base" selectees had to
dig up the graves of murdered Jews during the years 1941/42 in the
surrounding woods of Riga and burn the heavily decomposed bodies
afterwards. Even the nightly inspections of the camps own workshops were
led by Brüner: "The visits were awful. They were always accompanied by
beatings. He came at night, looking in our clothes after food, I
remember how he kicked a woman inmate, he almost beat her[....] to
death, he trampled upon her with his feet, struck her with his fists, as
he had found something to eat in her clothes", said the former inmate
Sara A. See: [Sarah A. 10/03/1973 statement, in ibid, I62/2985 B, page
2029, sic]

Durchgangslager(Transit Camp) the papers of newly arrived prisoners are burned

After the war, Brüner lived unmolested in Germany and died on March 2nd
1967 in Lüdenscheid before proceedings against the leaders of the camp
staff of Kaiserweald in 1978 commenced.
The Administration in January 1944 employed at most seven members of the
SS, but shows an increase in staffing levels within a few months to 14
administrative staff. In addition, the staff within the Administration
changed in the first half of 1944 frequently. An increase was recorded
only due to transfers from concentration camps of Sachsenhausen and
Warsaw or through promotions of their own guards into the offices. In
June 1944, seven members of the SS left the camp, three of which were
transferred to other camps., four were held in custody and indicted. In
January 1944, they were accused of misappropriation of convicts
properties and appropriation (theft) of objects, demoted as late as June
1944 and transferred (strafversetzt) to other Units [most likely into
the SS-Strafkompanie,sic] . In the summer of 1944 until the final
evacuation of the camp in October 1944, the number of concentration camp
staff declined steadily. The satellite camps were already disbanded,
some of the prisoners sent to other camps or killed and the staff sent
to concentration camps in the Reich or directly to camp Stutthof.
The guarding of the camp was carried out by local (Latvian) police, as
well as other foreign Nationals recruited into the SS which were
reporting and responsible to the local German Security Divisions. A
woman prisoner reported that Ukrainians were also among the guards who
served as watchmen at the gate to the women's camp.
In the women's camp there were two known female superintendents.
Firstly, Emma Kowa who was trained as Aufseherin from the 1 February
1943 to 26 August 1943 in Ravensbrück and subsequently sent as
Matron-Supervisor in charge of the women's section at Kaiserwald. During
the evacuation of Riga she drove, starting from June 8th 1944 a prison
transport to Breslau-Hundsfeld. At the local women's camp of Groß-Rosen
concentration camp she became Commando Leader. In October 1945, Kowa was
arrested in the U.S. Zone, and on 16 April 1946 turned over to the
French occupiers. On February 10, 1948 her trial commenced before a
French Military Court where former inmates testified that Kowa
participated during several Selections and on a "Children's Action" in
the spring of 1944 in the women's camp of Kaiserwald. They also claimed,
that she had beaten prisoners, whipped and kicked them. The court
sentenced Emma Kowa to twenty years imprisonment with hard labour. She
was released early 1953, arrested again and accused in the 1960 years,
for the shooting of women prisoners during the transport from the
sub-camp Breslau-Hundsfeld to the main camp (Stammlager) Gross-Rosen in
the summer of 1944. The case was dismissed because of the time
limitation since the offence (manslaughter) took place.
The second Oberaufseherin the women's camp was a young Latvian woman
named Maria, who walked around the main camp with a whip and used her
whip indiscriminately. During the last Children Selection in the summer
of 1944, Riwa Z., observed as Mary pulled three children from their
hiding places out of a women's barracks. The children, aged between ten
and eleven years were loaded onto a truck and taken away. [Statement
Riwa Z., 25/09/1973, in ibid, I162/2985 B, page 1275,sic]

Kaiserwald, Latvia, The concentration camp

COMPOSITION OF DETAINEE SOCIETY
In the camp, both sexes, women and men were imprisoned. Most were
between 18 and 45 years old. Elderly people and children and those
unable to work fell victim to the regular selection for transportation.
Apart from the main camp and remaining political criminals from
Sachsenhausen, all prisoners were Jews.
By the end of July until the liquidation of the ghetto in early November
1943, the resettlement of its residents into the main camp and its
satellite camps had taken place. On or about August 21, 1943 there were
1,950 former ghetto residents in camp Kaiserwald and further 5924 housed
in its satellite camps. [One of them was Jungfernhof (Jumpravmuiza) a
vacant farmhouse, three to four kilometers from Riga. Originally planned
as a food warehouse for the SS and the police, but it was used from
December 1941 to house 4000 'Reich Jews' (Reichsjuden) of all ages.
There they lived in catastrophic conditions. The inmates were
responsible at the nearby station for the sorting of baggage from
arriving transports of Jews. As from summer 1942 it was Salaspils that
served as detention camp for Latvians and Russians. [See: Alfred
Gottwald / Diana Schulle, The 'The deportation of Jews' from the German
Reich 1941-1945, Wiesbaden, 2005, page 114, sic] This represented 75
percent of all those able to work as at August 1943 of registered
residents in the ghetto. Among them were mostly Jews from the
Großderutschen Reich and Czechoslovakia, the majority of them came from
places like Prague and Brno (Brünn). Most of them arrived in the winter
19421/42 from their homes into the Riga ghetto, or at Jungfernhof. Of
the total of 24603 arriving at the station Skirotava / Riga at least
3449 people were shot in the surrounding forests. [See Schneider, "Reise
in den Tod', page 170, sic] Later held selections and the miserable
living conditions reduced the number of Jews in the ghetto considerably.
A much smaller group of inmates in Kaiserwald presented the Latvian Jews
from Riga and outlying regions. With the establishment of the Great Riga
Ghetto on October 25, 1941 over 30,000 Latvian Jews were imprisoned in
the 'Moscow suburb' Riga's. Just one month later, on 30 November and 8
December 1941, an estimated 27.500 fell victims to mass shootings in
Rumbala, a wood near Riga. About 2000 to 2500 young men and 300 women
escaped the executions. They were allowed to return into a small
isolated area of the ghetto. The larger part of this suburb, was called
Reichsjudenghetto (Reich Jews) and remained the mainstay of German Jews
deported to Riga.

Gate entrance to the Riga Ghetto

Upon Himmler's orders, to vacate the ghettos in the Baltic States and
send the Jews into concentration camps, Polish and Lithuanian Jews from
the Vilna Ghetto and Latvian Jews from the Ghettos Libau and the county
of Daugavpils were taken to Kaiserwald. On 23 Septemmber 1943, the day
of the final liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto, the SS deported between
1500 to 1700 able-bodied women and girls and 80 men by train to the
concentration camp in Riga. Most of them were sent a few days later into
the satellite camp at Riga Strasdenhof. One can only presume another
Jewish transport of unknown size from the disbanded Vilna ghetto of the
'Factory Kajilis' followed a few days later. By the end of 1943 about
13.500 people had passed through the main camp (Stammlager) and shipped
to other sub-camps and only about about 2,300 people were detained.
Likewise, the few Jews of the Lithuanian city of Olea were deported to
Riga and immediately sent into other sub-camps. At the beginning of 1944
several large shipments of Estonian Jews from the Reval arrived for some
reason in the camp, their subsequent fate is unknown.

Vilna Ghetto's Main Gate

A larger group of Hungarian Jewesses from Auschwitz reached the main
camp in April 1944 at the Kaiserwald just as a short transit station.
After a few days they were relocated into two satellite camps Spilve and
Dondagen. Only a small group of the young Hungarians remained in the
main camp. Shoshana Rabinovici describes them. "The young women were
upon their arrival from Auschwitz totally scared they had all their
heads shaved, tattooed a number on their arms, and dressed in the
standard striped prison clothes". Their subsequent fate is unknown. Only
a fraction of this group was after the closure of the camp complexes
evacuated to Stutthof.

THE GHETTO STORY WRITTEN BY MR. WINTER
Rumbula Viewed From The Riga Ghetto:
In Early October 1941, the Germans issued a decree that the Ghetto would
be closed, or locked, by October 15, 1941 and that all Jews had to live
in the Ghetto by October 25, 1941. Any Jew found outside of the Ghetto
after this date was subject to arrest and prosecution. From that day on
Jews could leave the Ghetto only by escort. Every day Germans, as well
as Latvian's, picked up the Jewish labourers at the gate of the Ghetto
and returned them at night time. Some SS and army units kept the Jews
right at the place of work and housed them in confiscated housing with
up to 50 persons in one room. Mostly men were taken from work, until one
day, the Germans wanted sewing machine operators. 500 women volunteered
for this work and actually 250 women were taken and incarcerated in the
women’s jail.
The Food supply in the Ghetto was nearly zero and many people had to go
hungry. Many workers tried to smuggle food in to the Ghetto when they
returned from work. This was nearly an impossible task because they were
searched by Germans as well as Latvian SS at the Ghetto gate. To make
matters worse, German police units took over. It had members that were
the outcasts of the human race. Some Jewish carpenters were taken to
Jungfernhof, which was about four miles from Riga, where they had to
build some barracks and put up some tiers in stables and barns. Nobody
knew at this time what the purpose of this work was.
In the second half of November, 1941, the Germans announced that some
people would be removed from the Ghetto to stop the overcrowding. The
persons who would be taken would be relocated in a camp away from the
Ghetto and if families were separated, they would be able to visit each
other once or twice a month. Some of the people in the Ghetto believed
the Germans and welcomed it, because a health and garbage problem had
arisen in the Ghetto. No date for the removal of the people was given.
Finally on November 30, 1941, the removal of the people from the Ghetto
started. On that day the workers left the Ghetto as usual, but they saw
quite a few Germans as well as Latvian SS and police by the Ghetto. Also
a number of city buses were by the Ghetto gate. When the workers
returned to the Ghetto nearly half of the population had been removed
and one part of the Ghetto was now completely empty. Ludzas Street was
the dividing line. The returning workers had to stay in a certain
section of the empty Ghetto. What they found was shocking. Here and
there were bodies and in many places snow was covered with blood. Houses
were ransacked and some clothing and walls were blood stained. They had
to carry the bodies to the cemetery and saw that the heads of the dead
were partially blown off. The SS must have used special, or dum dum
bullets[The ammunition used in the Walther PKK does look like a dum-dum
bullet, sic] to kill the people. The Germans announced that only those
people who resisted or refused an orderly resettlement were killed.

Riga, Latvia, Post-war, Houses at the site of the ghetto

According to the Ghetto inhabitants, the Latvians and Germans SS, as
well as German police and Latvian auxiliary police went from house to
house and drove all inhabitants out. Those who resisted or could not
move fast were beaten or shot on the spot. The houses in the section
were searched from top to bottom and anyone who was found was killed
immediately. People were collected on Ludzas Street and were formed into
columns five abreast. Then they were marched out of the Ghetto the
direction of Salaspils, under heavily armed guards of the Latvian SS.
Anyone who could not keep up was shot and bodies lined the snow covered
street. That was all they could tell the returning workers. Some still
had families in the Ghetto and asked for permission to see them which
was granted by the Germans. Nobody knew what had happened to the people
who had been removed from the Ghetto. The majority thought they had been
put in a camp near Salaspils, because it was known that there was a camp
near Salaspils which had been used by the Latvian army during summer
training. How many persons were killed in the Ghetto that day is not
known, but it may be close to 500.
Prior to the removal of the people from the Ghetto, Latvian workers had
put up a barbed wire fence on one side of Ludzas Street. It created a
smaller section in the Ghetto. This section was emptied of all
inhabitants and became later known as the Ghetto of the Latvian Jewish
males. In this section had to move all male workers when they returned
from work after the so-called first action after November 30, 1941. Each
time a group of people were (or had been) removed to a place unknown, it
was called an action [Die Aktion, in German, sic]. In this action about
13,000 to 15,000 men, women and children had to be removed from the
Ghetto. Nobody knew where they had been taken and no one suspected that
they had been killed. It was just impossible to think that something
like this, on a large scale, would happen. It was known, though, that
thousands of Jews had been killed by the Latvians in July and August, 1941.
Some Latvians approached Jewish workers on the outside of the Ghetto and
told them they saw their families and they needed clothing and money.
Since no one suspected anything, the men would give whatever they could
to spare the Latvians, to help their families in distress. Other Jews
who worked for the German army asked the German commanding officer to
find out where their families were. They actually sent some soldiers out
to find the Jews. When they came back, they reported that they could not
find a camp of Jews in the vicinity of Riga and Salaspils. A few days
later a group of Jews from Lithuania arrived in an all male section of
the Ghetto. They told quite a different story and reported about mass
murder in Lithuania. It put doubt in many minds but they could not
believe that their families could have been killed.
Jews could only work now. All normal life, as well as religious and
cultural life, came to a standstill. Animals still had protection under
the law, but to be a Jew in Latvia meant that you are less than an
animal. The only thing you can do is work and die. This was the attitude
of the Germans and Latvians. Every day, every inhabitant of the small
Ghetto had to go to work. It was nearly impossible to stay home; it was
safer to be working for a German army unit. The SS sometimes picked up a
group of workers and returned only half of the men or women to the
Ghetto. The rest were never seen or heard from. Any Jews was willing to
work for the German army because it was a chance of survival, and some
food was made available for the workers. Also, they had a chance to make
contact with some Latvians who were willing to help some Jews, for a
certain price, and trade some food. This group of Latvians was only a
small minority, but it existed. Many Latvians were afraid to help Jews
because they endangered their lives in doing so. Under the German decree
any person who had contact with, or protected a Jew, was liable to
arrest and prosecution. The majority of those who helped a Jew did it
for personal gain. Something was always wanted in return for the slice
of bread given to a Jew.
After the great action on November 30, 1941, life in the Ghetto returned
to a normal routine. Even so, people were very apprehensive and
wondering what was ahead next. Some younger men who wanted to go in the
smaller part of Ghetto were hindered by the guards. In the mean time,
some Latvians told some Jews on the work commandos that all women and
children have been shot. Those who heard this did not want to believe
this and kept their mouths shout, while others spread the rumour. The
majority were undecided what to do until they were woken up early on the
morning of December 6, 1941. They could see very little in the dark but
they heard a lot of noise and shooting. This was going on in the Ghetto
were the women and children were. With the arrival of daylight, they
could see that the SS were breaking down the doors and forcing the
inhabitants out of the houses. Those who resisted were shot on the spot.
The SS tried to form people in to columns to march them out in to
Ghetto. It was a repetition to what had happen a week before. A week
before people walk like lambs, but this time they resisted and a lot of
beating and shooting was going on. It was snowing heavily and people had
a hard time to walk on the street. All males in the small Ghetto had to
leave for work and only few could hide and watch the massacre scenes
that were going on across the barbed wire. The brutality of the German
and the Latvian SS, as well the police forces, had no limit. They were
going from top to bottom through the houses and forcing everybody,
dressed or undressed, into the streets. Screaming, beating and shooting
was going on unabated. It looked as if the world had come to an end.
Everyone was taken, even those who have served the Germans. The eldest
of the Jews, as well as the Jewish police (who had been protected
before) were taken, and the entire Ghetto was cleaned out. They were
marched in the direction towards Dvinsk. They actually marched into the
Forest of Rumbuli, where they all were shot.

Mass execution in the area of Task Force 8

A couple of horse wagons that had to follow the columns of men has to
pick up the bodies of the killed people and their luggage. In the
afternoon when the Jewish workers returned to the small Ghetto, they
were taken to remove the bodies that were lying around in that area
which was once the big Ghetto. Here they could see the inhuman behaviour
of the Latvians and Germans. Nearly 900 men, women and children had been
killed in the Ghetto because they resisted or could not move fast
enough. This time it was far worse than the first action on November 30,
1941. Some of the clean-up people were shot by the police sergeant
(Oberwachtmeister) Otto Tuchel because they did not move fast enough for
his liking. Tuchel was in charge of the guards in and outside of the
Ghetto and one of the worst sadists and Jew haters the Germans had in
their ranks. He competed with the Latvians and it is a question of who
killed the most Jews. This time nearly 12,000 to 14,000 Jews were
removed from the Ghetto and about 3,000 to 4,000 Jewish slaves were left
alive. I [Mr. Winter, sic] would estimate that nearly 28,000 to 30,000
Jews were killed in the two actions alone. The exact number is not known
because some Jews who had survived the massacre in other towns an
villages came into the Ghetto of Riga and added to the count of the
survivors.
A few days later an apartment block on Ludzas Street was enclosed with
barbed wire. . The 250 women who were in prison, plus some other women
who were held at the place of work during the action, were brought into
the Ghetto and put into the apartment block, separated from men. Their
total may have been close to 300 women. Close to 20% of the Jewish
population (mostly men) of Riga had been killed prior to the two big
actions. Therefore and estimate of 34,000 to 35,000 men, women and
children of the Jews from Riga, had been killed between June 30, 1941,
and December 6, 1941, would be correct.
After the second action no one believed the Germans any-more and every
survivor feared the worst for his family, despite assurances given by
the Germans. Some drunken Latvians told a different tale than the
Germans did. A few days later with the arrival of the German Jews, the
reality began to sink in.
The mastermind of the mass likings was from the German side, an SS
General, Jekeln, who stated in his trial after the war: Latvia was the
right place and had the wager and willing people to eliminate the Jews.
Anti-Semitism was so high in Latvia that no one had to convince the
Latvian helpers that it was Hitler’s plan to kill the Jews. They would
have done it without German help. His assistant was General Stahlecker,
who was in charge of Einsatzgruppe A (Special commando) and commanding
officer of the Security Police Ostland. Stahlecker was killed in January
1942 by Partisans. Next came Dr. Jur. R. Lange, who was the commander of
the Security Police in Latvia. Lange was a sadist and killer like the
world never had seen before. He committed suicide towards the end of the
war to escape the hangman’s noose. Lange had, in the Security Police,
many willing helpers who followed his orders to kill Jews. On the
Latvian side was Major Arreis, the leader of t he Latvian SS, plus his
helper Cucurs. (Arreis survived the war and is in a German jail. His
helper Cucurs was killed in South America under unknown circumstances. )
Then there was the police chief of Riga named Stieglics who was a
willing helper in the massacre. Also an army Lt. named Danscop and his
gang were willing helpers. Man members of the Perconcrust and the
Aisargi, plus auxiliary police out did the Germans when it came to
atrocities towards the Jews. These murderous gangs did most of the
killings in small towns with or without the assistance of the Germans.
The Germans and Latvians did everything they could to demoralize the
survivors of the massacres. They were completely cut off from the
outside world and kept on a food ration which was too little to live on
but not little enough to die a fast death. They had to work seven days a
week and were the slaves of the twentieth century. Any infraction meant
a beating and an instant death. Housing and living conditions were far
below normal standards and up to 10 persons had to sleep on the floor in
a small room. Quite a few people were in the age group of 14 to 16
years, and had to grow up over night to face a hostile word without
their families. This was the beginning of the darkest hour for the Jewry
of Europe.

A notice to the Jews of the ghetto stating that anyone who fails to properly greet a German clerk shall be punished

The "large ghetto" had been cleared of Latvian Jews. Mr. Winter wrote
that German Jews deported from the government district of Düsseldorf,
Germany had spent the previous day and night in unheated and now frozen
railroad freight cars on a railroad siding at Skirotava station. On the
morning of December 15 they were marched through the cold and snow to
the Riga Ghetto. Mr. Winter continues...
When they entered the houses their eyes split wide open by the sight
what greeted them. But they had no time to grasp it because other people
were pushing and were looking for shelter. Some ten to fifteen people
were in one room and it was standing room only. After a while it calmed
down and some people were taken out in order that everybody could sit
down. Then it finally started to dawn on them, that something terrible
had happened when they looked around. There was frozen cooked food on
the table, blood stained clothing on the floor, and baby carriages with
a bottle of frozen milk, outside in the snow, overturned furniture and
ransacked closets.
On the outer clothing, they could see that the former inhabitants were
Jews because two stars of David were on the clothing but without the
inscription (Jude "Jew") which they were wearing on the breast of their
clothing. The former transport leader and group leader from Düsseldorf
(a teacher from Neuss with the name Nussbaum) came around and took some
people out because more houses had been opened up. When somebody asked
him what was going on, he told them that he knew just as much as the
rest of the deportees even though he had some authority. Authority he
had, and if anyone in the Ghetto misused his authority, it was him. He
was nearly one hundred percent in cooperation with the Germans, and he
was open for bribes, from the first day on. While the new arrivals were
considering their fate, a shot rang out. When they looked out of the
window, they saw a woman lying in the snow who had crossed over to the
other side of the street and had been shot by a Latvian guard. From that
moment, the reality sank in that the resettlement was more than just a
resettlement and that rough times lay ahead.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

GÖTHS ARREST BY HIS OWN KIND
On 17 April 1944 the then Town Captain in Krakow, Josef Krämer, sent
a letter of complaint to the Governor General Hans Frank regarding
the tenure of the commander Göth. He accused him of violating the
Policies and the "promotion with steps taken to improve the
treatment of the Polish population", and noticed: Göth had
arbitrarily acted and unconstitutionally seized the Easter
Inventories [which belonged to the Reich, sic] and valuables of
residents in the camp area, which Krämer saw undermining his efforts
to improve relations with the Polish people: "It is quite a blow
(Faustschlag) against our policy, to achieve the loyal cooperation
of Poland by caring and fair treatment. All of our efforts,
including the opening of the Polish People's Theatre have no
success, if such Wild West methods are not suppressed. What this
gentleman (dieser Herr) Göth has broken here in a few hours, we can
not build up in months of painstakingly work again". SSPF Julian
Scherner tried to cover for Göth and reported the seizure as goods
from a bandit robbery (Bandenüberfall).

"SS-Oberführer Julian Scherner"

But Krämer called for Göth's transfer and the initiation of a
criminal and partisan judicial proceedings. The next day Governor
Frank called, Göth's approach: "[...] the Reich Policy of the
Führer, for this is a most seriously and incriminating range of
hostile behaviour." [ibid]
In August 1944, Himmler was given a letter from his school friend,
Hans Stauber, Paymaster of the Army Management Location in Kracow,
who wrote to his "Dear Heini" dutifully: "About the Plaszow camp,
where all the Krakow hostages (Poles that had been taken prisoner
after the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in a street raid in
Krakow) are housed, there is just nothing good (nichts Gutes) to say
about it. For example that the detainees had to give up their
cigarettes and were then divided among the guards, or that the
prisoners are offered a loaf of bread for 600-1000 Zloty's for sale
(supposedly to Jews housed in the vicinity !!), this throws a bad
light over the supervision of the camp's control ". [Excerpt from
the letter of the Top Paymaster Stauber to the Reichsführer SS,
16.8.1944, in: BArch Berlin, NS 19/2586, sic]
Since SS colonel Brandt, on Himmler's staff had received on the 6th
of September 1944 a telex from HSSPF in Krakow, William Koppe, who
briefed him about the court action proceedings against Göth because
of insubordination. The telegram from Wilhelm Koppe HSSPF East,
conveyed to Brandt as a response to the position in terms of Göth:

"Koppe's Telegram to Brandt regarding Göths pending Judicial Enquiry"

"Against Captain Göth at the moment a judicial inquiry for abuse of
authority is proceeding. During this procedure other suspicious
factors surfaced and are investigated simultaneously.
On 13 September 1944, Amon Göth was taken into custody and picked up
from his villa by two Gestapo agents and taken away. Göth will never
be returned to Plaszow . The arrest warrant for Göth has been served
by the SS and Police Court VI in Krakow: The charges include
suspected acquisition of personal property and money from Jewish
prisoners with the aim of personal enrichment as well as the
improper treatment of prisoners in the Plaszow concentration camp.
In Vienna, Goeth will appear before the SS-investigator Dr. Konrad
tomorrow". [Dr. jur. Rudolf Brandt was born on 2 Born June 1909 in
Frankfurt / Oder, member of the NSDAP.
SS banner leader since 20 April 1944. Brandt was Himmler's personal
adviser, Under-secretary and Chief of the Ministerial Office in the
Reich Interior Ministry. He was brought on 9 December 1946 before a
U.S. military court in Frankfurt / Main, and sentenced on 20 August
1947 to death and hanged June 1948 at Landsberg am Lech. Brandt was
probably on 21 or 22 taken in May 1945 at Bremervörde, together
with other SS men who were with Himmler on the flight to the south.
sic]
At the end of January Amon Göth appears in Brünnlitz and put the
prisoners in fear and terror. Schindler reassures them: "This is not
the same Göth, he can do nothing more. He only comes here to pick up
his things". Göth takes the opportunity to questions Mietek Pemper.
He wants to know what the SS had asked him about. Pemper replied to
him that he could not give him any information, but then told him
that they had questioned him about 'this' and 'that'. Because The
conversation did not take long, Göth sees Pemper only in autumn
1946 again in the dock in Krakow as a star witness against him. [Mr.
Pemper died at age 91 on June 7th 2011 in Augsburg, Germany, where
he lived. His death was announced by the Jewish Historical Society
of Augsburg, where he had settled in 1958, becoming a German citizen
and a management consultant. sic]

SS-Standartenführer Rudolf Brandt prior to his Execution'

It only took a few days later until Koppe was informed about
Staubers letter to Himmler. In May 1943 SS- Lieutenant Colonel Dr.
Georg Konrad Morgen , was appointed chief judge from autumn 1944 in
Krakow, to investigate the abuses in the concentration camps as
such. As a result of his research he had Göth arrested and brought
before an SS and Police Court while on vacation in Vienna on 13
September 1944. Goeth was staying in Vienna in February, perhaps due
to his divorce form his wife. On 13 February, he is admitted to the
hospital in the 74 Sternwartestraße. There was a suspected ulcer of
the duodenum. On 17 February 1945 he was then arrested again by the
SS military police and taken to the police prison Rossauerlände.
Göth was charged for corruption, abuse of power and murder of
prisoners. From Vienna Göth was transferred to Krakow, where Dr.
Morgen was SS chief judge. Probably he was soon dismissed. Since
80,000 RM in cash were found in Amon Göth's possession, and that he
claimed the money came from Oskar Schindler, an investigation was
launched and OSKAR SCHINDLER was brought back handcuffed from
Brünnlitz to Krakow in October 1944. Oskar was scared during the
eight days he was in SS custody. He was no longer certain that his
contacts could get him out of jail because the charge of corruption
was so serious. He had been brought to Gestapo Headquarters instead
of Montelupich prison (where he had been incarcerated earlier),
which also frightened him because 'only the [word of a] top Nazi,
Himmler, could save you'.
On the fourth day of his imprisonment, one of his friends, Hut,
visited Oskar and told him that Plaszows new Kommandant ,
SS-Obersturmführer Arnold Büscher, refused to send the three hundred
women initially selected to go to Brünnlitz via Auschwitz. According
to Schindler, Büscher thought that Oskar was shipping these women to
his new camp "for his own special reasons, and that he wasn't
sufficiently anti-Jewish". Büscher wanted to take the Schindler
women off the list and replace them with a different group of women.
Oskar, who was becoming increasingly worried about the length of his
detention, now had even more reason to try to find a way out of the
Gestapo jail. And though Emilie Schindler does not mention this
arrest, ( Schindlers third), in her memoirs, Itzak Stern said it was
Emilie who got Oskar released after eight days "due to connections
and a great bribe".
It was Baer, the Kommandant of Auschwitz, who finally agreed to
release the 300 original Schindler women to Oskar in return for a
payment of six RM ($2.40) a day for each women for the time they
were in Auschwitz. Bear then pocketed this money.
Even though Schindler was treated well by the SS, he feared for his
life. One of the Nazi Officers who entered his cell spit on him and
called him "a Jew lover, King of the Jews". Later, after his
release, Schindler met the SS Officer in public and got into a fight
with him. Schindler knocked the SS-man unconscious.
Jewish prisoners who had been unloading railway wagons at Krakow
hastily began hiding Göths personal stuff ("treasures") which could
have led to additional investigations. Schindler maintained that he
knew nothing of the embezzlement and that he had never at any stage
bribed Göth.[winch was a lie, sic] However, he admitted that Göth
received money from him, which were in the form of a loan (Darlehen)
After 8 days of investigations, thanks to his friendly relations
with Arms Inspector, Lieutenant General Maximilian, Schindler was
set free, just in time to oversee in Plaszow the "loading" of the
300 Schindler women to his factory. The new Kommandant of the camp
SS First Lieutenant Arnold Büscher,had sent them together with
1,700 other women first to Auschwitz without separating them as had
been ordered. Göth was also interrogated by the Sicherheitspolizei
(Security Police) for giving information to the engineer Grünberg
about the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto. Grünberg a German who
was sympathetic to the Jews and closely associated with Stern,
Pemper and Schindler. He passed the information on to Schindler, who
in turn warned the ghetto leaders. Philip Grimm testified as a
witness during preliminary hearings at Göths scheduled trial: "Some
time after I had left Plaszow, I was interrogated in Oranienburg by
the SS judge, Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Kauke about Göth, and I heard
that he would stand trial before an SS and police court and that he
was accused of indiscriminate killings of Jews in Plaszow". In
January 1945, Göth was taken to the Stadelheim prison in Munich, to
be put on trial there. This trial never took place.
One reason that Göth was never brought to justice by the SS was
Himmler's decision in the spring 1944 to limit Dr. Morgen's
investigation to the Koch case. Morgen, who had set up investigative
commissions in most of the concentration camps, evidently pursued
the case against Göth against Hiummler's wishes. The Morgen
investigations had caused quite a stir in the SS, which oversaw the
mass murder of millions of Jews and others during the war. Moreover,
given the widespread corruption within some of the KZ-SS, an
aggressive investigator such as Morgen could create all sorts of
problems for any number of officers in the large network of camps.
In the end, the SS dropped the charges against Göth, though there
was enough evidence to convict him of various crimes. Unfortunately,
politics and the end of the war kept Morgen from adding Amon Leopold
Göth's name to the list of legal victories.

Identification Amon Göths as Prisoner of War"

Göth was released on 27 April 1945 from Munich-Stadelheim prison and
transferred to the Flack and Replacement Regiment 3 in
Munich-Freimann. From there, he was hospitalised due to poor health
into a sanatorium in Bad Tölz. Already on May 5, 1945 American
investigators had traced him in Bad Tölz and locked him up in the
detention centre at Kornwestheim. On 8 February 1946 he was
transferred to the camp for war criminals on the former grounds of
the concentration camp at Dachau. After his identity as a former
commander of the Plaszow concentration camp had been established, he
was delivered on May 28 to the Polish Justices. On 27 August 1946
began the criminal process in Krakow before the Polish National
Supreme Court.

"Göth on the way from court to prison"

During the eight days of the trial the prosecution was able to
reconstruct what happened in the camp. The public interest was
enormous. As the courtroom could accommodate only 250 people, loud
speakers were installed in front of the courthouse. The daily press
commented the course of the process, and it was obviously difficult
for journalists to maintain their professional distance. The titles
of the articles read: "A silhouette of a monstrous criminal", "The
Plaszow Executioner brought to justice," "And yet he murdered", "He
personally killed", "The brown Beast" this gives an indication of
the mood that had set in during the process. Göth was finally
sentenced to death by the rope as well as the loss of public and
political rights[which is a formality] and confiscation of all
property. The President did not exercise the right of pardon. During
his trial Göth displayed a provocative indifference.

"Göth arrest photo"

In fact there was no effective defence, although two court
appointed lawyers had been available to him. Göth was fully aware
of the outcome and accepted what was coming to him, without any sign
of remorse, he pleaded not guilty. Among the various charges he
says: It was not true that there were thousands of people that died
in Plaszow. It is also not true that he had tortured prisoners in
the camp or were torn by his dogs. He believes that there are not a
single witness that could claim that a single prisoner was tortured
to death. In Plaszow there had been no murders for no reason. And he
had to shoot Chilowicz on command of Koppe, he had been informed
earlier about the intentions of the camp elder. Enrichment from the
possessions of Jewish prisoners can not be proven, he bought
everything properly, the invoices had been recognised by a former SS
court. Fraud and embezzlement of food destined for the the care of
the prisoners did not take place. He accepted responsibility for
what happened at Plaszow. He had been given authority and permission
to do everything he had done, he said, and was only carrying out
orders and instructions received from his superiors. He also
contended that the penalties he was inflicting upon the inmates
including putting them to death, were within his disciplinary
jurisdiction as commandant of the camp, and were in accordance with
the German regulations in force.

Göth hears his Death Sentence.

Göth appealed for mercy[which is rather surprising, sic] to the
President of the National State Council. After the President had
decided not to avail himself of his prerogative of pardon, the
sentence was carried out on 13th September 1946, he was 37 years
old.

Handwritten Appeal Göths for Mercy

The Botched Hanging Execution of Amon Göth:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BLbqADnPVg
The hanging took place not far from the former site of the Płaszów
camp. At his execution, Göth's hands were tied behind his back. The
executioner two times miscalculated the length of rope necessary to
hang Göth, and it was only on the third attempt that the execution
was successful. [The claim is made that Göth defiantly performed the
Hitler salute, as the eternal Nazi, this statement is incorrect,
following is Spielbergs Hollywood version of the final act.:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XL2lJj8248&feature=related,
sic]
Göth was married and divorced twice. His first marriage was to Olga
Janauschek in January 1934. They were divorced in July 1936. His
second marriage was to Anny Geiger in October 1938, which ended in
1944. Soon after his second marriage ended, Göth was engaged to Ruth
Irene Kalder, (nicknamed "Majola" in the Płaszów camp during her
stay in Göth's "Red Villa"), who had taken Göth's name shortly after
his death. Through these relationships, Göth had two sons and two
daughters. Göth's first child, a boy named Peter, died seven months
after his birth from a diphtheria infection. Göth had two more
children with Anny Geiger, a daughter named Ingeborg and a son named
Werner. Göth's last child was a daughter named Monika (chosen mainly
from Göth's childhood nickname, "Mony") whom he had by Ruth Irene
Kalder. Monika was born on 23 October 1945.

LAST MONTHS
After the replacement of Göth, SS-Captain Arnold Büscher became the
new commander of Plaszow. The Security Protection responsibility of
the camp fell to SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt Schupke. Büscher was born
on December 16, 1899 in Bad Oeynhausen, and since 1931 member of the
SS. At the beginning of the war he performed duties only in
concentration camps, serviced in them from Buchenwald to
Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme. From April 1944 he was head of the
camp's guards (Wachmannschaft) in Plaszow. Büscher was condemned to
death for his actions in Plaszow on 23 January 1948. Kurt Schupke,
was born on 15 May 1898 in Greitz, and did service in the camps of
Sanok, Zaslaw, Rzeszow and from April 1944 to January 14, 1945 in
Plaszow, then at Buchenwald. He was sentenced on 10 June 1948 in
Krakow to death.
After the huge transports of male prisoners from the concentration
camp at the beginning of August 1944 to KZ Mauthausem the number of
inmates for the first time since early 1943 sank below the figure of
10.000. On 1 September 1944, a total registered prisoners was
4952, of these were 2843 men and 2109 women, a month later this
figure fell to 4595, of these 272 men and 177 women were on the 23
September classified as "unable to work." It is most likely that
they were Polish inmates who were sent as forced labourers into the
Reich for other assignments.
On 6 September 1944 HSSPF Koppe cabled to Himmler that the camp "is
already in the process of being dismantled," and "the problem should
be resolved in the near future". In September and October 1944 less
and less raw material was available for processing, so that many
inmates had very little work or none at all. The metal workshop and
Madritsch's company worked half shifts and in some Departments at
reduced hours. The plant manager of the DAW Joseph Neuschel fought
desperately against the deportation of his skilled workers from the
camp.
As the front line approached forever nearer, machinery and raw
materials were systematically shifted. Already in August and
September 1944, the barracks were dismantled and sent in part by
goods-trains to Bergen-Belsen and Neuengamme. With additional
Transports of inmates, mainly in October 1944, the occupancy rate
fell by January 14, to 625 prisoners. Of the remaining guards only
87 of them remained. In the meantime due to the clearance of the
guard barracks, an emergency shelter was established for the
remaining prisoners. Until then, the vehicles, construction
machinery, and the so-called special assets, of confiscated books
and scientific works, were packaged and loaded for shipment. Some
of the remaining prisoners were still working for the Office Group
"C" (Construction), the official Group (EIG-DAW), the chemists for
the SS office, and for the defence contracting firm Korgeld &
Rasner.
DESTRUCTION OF ALL TRACES
Probably in August / September 1944 they began with the exhumation
of bodies from mass graves and the burning of all evidence in the
Plaszow camp. This lasted about six weeks, with the fire burning
from early morning. At night, the prisoners dug out the corpses and
prepared them prior for cremation at the funeral pyre, by
alternately placing a layer of wood and a layer of corpses. To
prevent air attacks, the pyre burned only during the day. The
exhumation were performed simultaneously in two places in the old
cemetery and on the "Hujowa Gorka". Twenty to thirty prisoners were
employed ten to twelve days in the "Burning Commando" or the
"Excavation Commando", for a total of six weeks. After work vodka,
sugar and JUS-soup (Jusowka) was provided for an in unimaginative
abhorrent task . At that time, an unbearable stench hung over the
camp. Seventeen loads of ashes left the camp. Taking the fact that
many prisoners that took part in this operation and a relatively
high number of witnesses reported the events after the war, one can
safely assume that prisoners were not killed after finishing their
assignments, as was the case with inmates attached to
"Sonderkommando 1005" at some other camp locations.
EVACUATION OF THE CAMP
"On Sunday, 14 January 1945, the SS Obergruppenführer Koppe issued
by 1200 hours to the commandant of KL Plaszow a direct order to
report back by 1400 hours that all the prisoners, the entire force
of 625 men and women will be ready by 1700 hours to march towards
Auschwitz", thus reported the Camp Administration of Krakow in its
report. The artillery fire was heard in the immediate vicinity of
Krakow, and constantly Russian bombers flew over the city, the
telephone connection was broken. The march lasted three days, almost
without interruption. Some prisoners escaped, and although the SS
had threatened to shoot for one escapee ten other prisoners,
nothing happened. Protective Custody Camp Leader Kurt Schupke
oversaw the death march, he behaved relatively decently. One truck
drove with the prisoners loaded with documents and goods, but did
not include any inmates. Two days after arriving at Auschwitz some
prisoners had to walk to a the sub-camp at Gleiwitz, where they had
to spend eight days and nights under the open sky. With that the
camp was empty.
NUMBER OF VICTIMS
From the Chronicle of occupied Krakow and Tadeusz Wonsli figures
indicate that a minimum of 1702 Polish resistance fighters were
killed at Plaszow. With regular transports twice a week, this
results in the course of the history means an average of eleven
victims per transport. This does not seem too high, especially since
we know that in the summer of 1944 almost daily shootings were
organised. There are also 270 Jewish victims who were taken in the
days and weeks after the Ghetto Closure thatwere taken from their
hiding places and shot. The Gestapo killed at least 531 other Jews
who had been detected outside the camps. Furthermore, in November
1943 about 200 selected Jews from the three Jewish labourwere shot
within the camp ground. As can be backed and verified, the murder
of at least 237 Jewish camp inmates. This results in almost 3,000
murdered in Plaszow, including 1700 non-Jewish Poles. Together with
the approximately 2,000 bodies that were brought out of the
evacuated Ghetto to Plaszow, this indicates that nearly 5,000 people
were either buried or burned on the site. The majority of these
deaths were not inmates, even if the shootings carried out on the
camp grounds.
REVENGE OR OUTRIGHT MURDER-THE JEWISH BRIGADE
Jewish soldiers who served in the British Army hunted down and
executed up to 1,500 high-ranking Nazis in the immediate aftermath
of the Second World War. The soldiers were members of the Jewish
Brigade, part of the British Eighth Army, which fought with
distinction in northern Italy in the latter stages of the war. As
the conflict in Europe ended, the Jewish soldiers started their own
mini-war. They formed "revenge squads", and with the help of their
British Army credentials travelled around Germany and Austria
searching for men responsible for the Holocaust. The brigade's
officers and NCOs were British Jews - Edmund de Rothschild, scion of
the banking dynasty, was a young captain - but the ranks were filled
with Jewish volunteers from Palestine, and refugees who had fled
Nazi-occupied Europe.
The hitherto untold details of the story have emerged in a new book,
The Jewish Brigade: An Army with Two Masters, by author and
historian Morris Beckman. He told the Independent on Sunday: "These
were the first post-war executions of selected top Nazis. There were
several dozen revenge squads operating; the highest estimate of
executions was 1,500. The exact figure will never be known". Secret
orders from Zionist leaders in Tel Aviv instructed members of the
brigade to ensure that at least some of the senior members of the SS
would be punished for their crimes against humanity.

Jewish Brigade Group Emblem

Working under the codename "Operation Judgement", brigade members
formed secret killing squads. In the book, one of the executioners,
Israel Carmi, explains how they dealt with their selected targets.
"When we arrived at the home of our suspect we would put on
[British] Military Police helmets with the white band and police
armlets. Then we would enter the home and take the suspect with us,
saying that we wanted him for interrogation. Usually they came
without a struggle. Once in the car we told the prisoner who we were
and why we took him. Some admitted guilt. Others kept silent. We did
the job."
Those who volunteered for the killings had lost their families and
communities in the Holocaust and were burning with hatred. "We were
young Jewish soldiers," one recalled. "We knew that our people would
never forgive us if we did not exploit the opportunity to kill
Nazis". Initially, they used to shoot them in the head but later
adopted the method of strangling with their own hands. The Avengers
would not reveal anything to their targets before the execution –
not who they were nor why they are killing them. They said the
killing was like "a killing of an insect".

THE 'NAKAM' GROUP
The most extremist group was the Nakam ("vengeance") Group. They
numbered around 60 Jews who were former Partisans as well as other
Jews who survived the Holocaust. The group arrived in Germany after
the war in order to conduct more complicated and fatal vengeance
operations. Their ultimate purpose was to execute an operation that
would cause a broad international response that would be a warning
to anyone who might consider trying to harm Jews again, as the Nazis
had. Notables among the Hanakam group were Abba Kovner, Yitzhak
Avidav, and Bezalel Michaeli. Through Chaim Weizmann later President
of Israel according to Harmatz, Kovner obtained from Ephraim and
Aharon Katzir a poison. He claimed it was to be used on 3000 loaves
of bread for former SS guards, currently in American Prisoner of war
camp in "Stalag XIII", but he was concealing their bigger plan of
poisoning the water supplies of Munich, Berlin, Weimar, Nuremberg
and Hamburg. The Nakam group intended to kill 6 million Germans – as
many as the Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. According to
Harmatz, they would have taken care to except American residential
areas from the area, so as to murder only Germans as far as
possible. The Katzir brothers supplied Harmatz with the poison and
the Haganah gave Kovner false documents of a supposedly Jewish
Brigade soldier, and he boarded a ship in Port of Haifa. When the
ship approached Toulon in France, the British discovered that
Kovner's papers were forged. His accomplices managed to throw the
poison overboard. Kovner was sent to an Egyptian jail. According to
Joseph Harmatz, leader of Nakam after Kovner's arrest, they were
betrayed. Although uncertain, he suspects the Zionists sabotaged out
of fear that such a crime would diminish support for a Jewish state.
As a result of the failure of the mass poisoning plan, it was
decided to move to Plan B. Under the command of Kovner's deputy,
Yitzhak Avidav, the Hanakam group poisoned hundreds of loaves of
breads that were designated for the S.S. prisoners. On April 14th
1946, Nakam painted with diluted arsenic some 3,000 loaves of bread
for the 12,000 German POWs from the Langwasser internment camp near
Nuremberg (Stalag XIII). The camp was under US authority. 1900
German prisoners of war were poisoned in the US camp, and all got
"seriously ill". The Associated Press:
Did it work? Just check the New York Times for April 20th 1946,
where on page six you will find an Associated Press report that
begins as follows: "Nineteen hundred German prisoners of war were
poisoned by arsenic in their bread early this week in a United
States camp and all are 'seriously ill', United States headquarters
announced tonight". How many of those SS men actually died following
the poisoning at Stalag 13 has never been verified, but some put the
figure at several hundred, others at a thousand. According to
Harmatz (Nakam leader), 300 to 400 Germans died. He said this "was
nothing compared with what we really wanted to do".
The public prosecutor's office within the higher regional court at
Nuremberg stopped the preliminary investigation of attempted murder
in May 2000 against two Nakam activists, who professed to have
involvement in the incident. The public prosecutor's office cited
statute of limitations laws (In German: "Verjährung) "due to unusual
circumstances" as reasoning for the suspension of the investigation.
The 'Nakam' Group British-born soldiers did not take part in the
revenge killings, but provided practical support, such as forged
papers. Londoner Mark Hyatt, who was an NCO in the Jewish Brigade,
told the author that he provided the hit squads with "logistical
support". He said: "We did what had to be done and there was no
compunction about it."
He had transferred from the ranks of Eighth Army, with which he had
fought in north Africa. He summed up the Jewish Brigade as a "very
unorthodox outfit".
As well as the execution of the suspected SS and Gestapo war
criminals, the brigade assisted tens of thousands of concentration
camp survivors to reach Palestine, despite the fact that the British
government was implacably opposed to Jewish immigration at the time
and that the country was the subject of a naval blockade. The
brigade also gave the Palestine-bound refugees military training and
stole, from the British Army stores, thousands of weapons to help
arm the Haganah, the embryonic Israeli army. While the Foreign
Office, under the arch anti-Zionist Ernest Bevin, was hostile to the
Jewish Brigade and wanted it to be stopped, the British military
command refused to act and turned a blind eye to the brigade's
clandestine activities. "The commanders of the Eighth Army knew what
was going on but they were sympathetic, [as] they had fought
alongside the brigade," said Mr Beckman. Ken Sanitt, an artillery
sergeant who had transferred into the Jewish Brigade after four
years of fighting in north Africa, Mesopotamia and at Monte Cassino,
said: "The British and the Indian soldiers I had been fighting with
were elite troops, but they were war-weary, while the Jewish Brigade
were spoiling for action. Their fighting spirit was fantastic."
Indeed, the brigade became the template for the Israeli army and 35
former members of the Brigade later became Israeli generals.
EPILOGUE
In 1964, a 7-metr4 High 'Memorial o the Victims of Fascism in
Krakow' (Polish: Pomnik Ofiar Faszymu w Krakowie) designed by Witold
Ceckiewicz was unveiled. It is dedicated in general to the victims
of Fascism. Few traces of the former camp remain. In 2003, memorial
plaques were affixed to the former camp entrance, presenting
information about the history of the camp. Next to it are two
further memorial plagues. In 2000, one of them was dedicated to the
Hungarian Jewish women who were deported from Plaszow to Auschwitz
and murdered there. Another plague, one which honoured all of the
victims of Plaszow, was donated by the Jewish community of Krakow.
On one of the execution sites, Hujowa Gorka, there is a cross with
barbed wire on it. The history of the camp is also dealt with in the
permanent exhibition on the history of Krakow during World War II at
the "Schindler Factory" museum (Polish: Fabryka Schindlera). The
museum was opened in 2008 in the former Administration building of
Oskar schindler's enamelware factory. Prisoners from Plaszow worked
here, and Schindler could save about 1200 of them from being
transported to death camps.

Acknowledgements

"Plaszow" the German text is published in the series of books "Der Ort

des Terrors" by Wolfang Benz and Barbara Distel, published by C. H.

BECK, volume 8, which was written by Angelina Awtuszewska-Ettrich which

EXECUTIONS AND DEPORTATIONS TO AUSCHWITZ
Plaszow can be characterised at the beginning by arbitrary killings
and atrocities without regard to the preservation of the prison
labour potential. The camp was under the jurisdiction of the SS and
Police Leader (SS- und Polizeiführer), and was thus free of any
control. Most assaults and abuses occurred In 1943, for which some
members of the camp SS were sentenced later.
One of the first executions at Plaszow was the hanging of two young
women in March 1943, who had dared to escape. All prisoners had to
be present during the hanging at roll call. On 3 August 1943, two
Jews, engineer Krautwirth and a 16-year-old youth named Haubenstock
were hanged for alleged communist views, they had been singing a
Russian duet, which in the views of the SS was a Bolshevik song. In
October 1943, some prisoners who were employed in the administration
were killed. They had stored food in their rooms, which Göth had
found. All subjects were taken to the "Hujowa Gorka" site and shot
there. In July 1943, the SS-men, Staib and Grün shot and killed
three Jews in the brush-working barrack, whom they surprised in
prayer. SS corporal William Staib, because of his glass eye was
called by the inmates 'Oczko' (Äuglein), he was a sadist who beat
with particular fondness into the faces of inmates with his riding
whip. SS-man Wolfgang Gross was said to have been in love with a
pretty Jewish girl. In late summer of 1943 they were caught together
'in flagranti' by Göth at the SS-Accommodation and Göth commanded,
she [the girl, sic] to be killed. SS Sergeant Albert Hujar shot her
and her little brother. [Statement of Naphtali D. 3/26/1079, in:
ibid B 162/1126, page 2896, sic]
Göth owned by two dogs, a Great Dane, 'Rolf' and a Shepherd 'Alf',
who only came into the camp as his escorts. Both were trained to
attack people on command, to bite or even kill. What can be proven
that at least one prisoner on command by Göth was attacked and
mauled by the dogs. [Statement by the accused Karl-Heinz Bigell,
that one of the dogs mauled and fatally injured inmate Olmer and he
killed him with a well aimed shot through the head, in ibid, AR-Z
60I/67 Vol 4, page 1346, sic]

After Selections, unsuitable inmates awaiting Transport

All witnesses stressed that the SS-man Grün, had reached a
particularly sadistic level of violence. "His greatest pleasure was
walking around in all corners of the camp. He suddenly appeared
where he was not expected and in most cases found victims, and would
punish them in various different ways". By order of Göth he shot
the administrative staff member, Goldstein, who had written all
night secret correspondence for Göth. [Thus he knew too much and had
to go,sic] A very decent SS man was the chief of the Construction
Management in the camp, Engineer Huth, a number of inmates in their
post-war statements did speak highly of him.
Inside the camp there were three killing centres, two of which were
used mainly for the shooting of prisoners by the Gestapo. The first
and oldest of sites, the prisoners called it "the Excavator"(Bagger)
and was located next to the bathhouse. The name went back to an old
stationary excavators that covered the bodies with earth. Whatever
the circumstances, when a prisoner in the camp died, it was said he
was "gone under the Excavator"(unter dem Bagger gegangen). At this
location approximately 270 Jews were shot, who were tracked down
out of their hiding places when the ghetto was liquidated. The
shootings were committed and led by the SS-men Francis Grün, Arwin
Janetz, Albert Hujar and Edmund Zdrojewski. Right next to the
excavator in the immediate vicinity of the old bath house area,
smaller groups were killed. Some distance away, towards the roll
call grounds, there was a slight elevation, were the larger groups
were shot and the bodies then placed into a pit. Later on the new
bath house, a delousing station and some barracks were built onto
this site. There are almost 2,000 Jews buried there who had been
shot in the course of the ghetto closure on March 13, 1943, [A
funeral employee (Leichengräber) , counted the bodies as 1860
murdered in his statement: AZIH Warsaw, 302 / Report No. 3851, sic],
as well as 38 Jews from Bochnia, which were in possession of
foreign securities on March 28, had been shot and buried there. They
were transported by truck to Plaszow from the Gestapo jail, housed
in Bochnia Montelupich by the commanders of the Security Police and
SD, Max Grosskopf, Rudolph Körner, Kurt Heinemeyer and killed
there.

Montelupich Prison

The approximately 130-200 elderly, the sick and children from the
disbanded Jewish Labour Camp I in November 1943 had been executed at
this point as well. When, after a campaign (Aktion) in the ghetto of
Bochnia in the fall of 1943 a large group of Jews was deported to
Plaszow, the Germans selected from the newcomers, a group of ten to
20 older people and commander Göth ordered SS-man Wolfgang Gross to
have them shot during the night at "the Bagger". "Hujowa Gorka" was
the second of the three execution sites in Plaszow, where there were
shootings at the end of summer 1943. This place was a former
Austrian artillery site from World War I. The land rises slightly
above the surrounding terrain, which is why it was called in camp
jargon as "Gorka" (hill). "Hujowa", sometimes "Chulowa" is a vulgar
term for the male reproductive organ, a pun on the SS man Hujar,(a
chuja=a dick) who often took part in the shootings. This hill was
clearly visible for working prisoners from the new expanding
terrain. The executions themselves were carried out in pits and
could not be observed, one could only guess when prisoners had
arrived and shots were heard. Although no one was allowed at the
time of the executions in the vicinity, there were situations when
camp inmates could monitor the approaching trucks, which brought
victims to the execution site.
At "Hujowa Gorka" mainly non-Jewish Poles died there, prisoners from
the Gestapo prison in the Pomorska Sraße of Montelupich were
trucked-in to the site.

Inmates of Montelupich with Guards

Almost regularly, usually twice a week, vehicles brought prisoners
to be shot. They were mostly Poles, who had been active in the
underground, resistance fighters, partisans, who were arrested
during raids and sometimes Jews that had been tracked down hidng on
the "Aryan side". It was extremely rare that Plaszow Camp Inmates
were murdered there. Nafatali D. recalls that the trucks were
brought straight to the mass grave when the shooting started. "The
groups consisted of a few people, sometimes between 15-20 in total,
many of them were Poles". Shlomo L., who escaped because of a happy
co-incident in the proverbial last moment of the shooting, says: "I
have personally witnessed how [...] 20 men and 14 women were shot
dead at Plaszow, it was on May 27, 1943. I was staying at that time
in the prison at Montelupich in custody. On this day, I was taken
out of the cell and brought into the court yard [...] and was sent
to stay with these people. [...] We were all taken to Plaszow,
where already two pits (Gruben) were prepared. There, we had to get
off. The women were initially staying on the bus, while the men
went into the pit and had to undress [...] When I (again) was on the
bus, I could look out of the window, and saw what happened next.
[...] SS-man Heinrich called out: fire! I've seen then a German with
a MG [Machine Gun,sic] shoot into the pit "[Statement Shlomo L.
19/03/1968 in: ibid, 162/III2 B, page 744, sic.] In the summer of
1944, there were such executions almost every day, carried out and
attended by Gestapo Personnel only. Members of the Camp Staff
usually did not take part in these executions. See: [Willner, Moja
droga, page 103, sic]
.During this type of actions entrance to the new area was usually
barred. The event was always much the same: The execution site
(Richtstätte) was cordoned off, and during that evening the SS
imposed a "no-go-zone", so the prisoners could see nothing. The
victims were led to five 20 meter long, 2 meters wide and 3 meters
deep pits. They had to undress and get into the ditch and lie down
or kneel. Then they were shot. The bodies were then covered with
lime (Kalk) and earth, " in several camps until the trench was full
at this point, they then continued on another site." [Statement
11/02/1983 P. Leopold, in: BArch Ludwigsburg, B 162/1126, page 3123,
sic] later on, the bodies were immediately burned in the pits.
Witnesses tell of several instances in which the victims were trying
to show their courage, conviction and pride even in the hour of
death to the murderers, they tell of people who sang "Poland is not
yet lost,"(Noch ist Polen nicht verloren) of women, who were asked
to remove their fur coats, and threw these at the feet of their
murderers. [Kielkowsky, Oboz pracy, page 30, sic], according to a
report of a survivor during some executions, at the Göth's High
Society Evenings, they were celebrating, eating, drinking and
laughing. A dentist, after each shooting had to search the oral
cavity of the murdered for gold teeth. All bodies were buried after
examination. The deceased from the camps hospital and about 90
victims of a typhus epidemic in Tarnow were burned and the remains
buried at the same location. Several witnesses report the shooting
of a Wehrmacht Officer. On October 9, 1943, the Jewish Day of
Atonement, Göth ordered a selection from the camp's inmates for
about 50 to 60 Jewish prisoners who were shot on the "Hujowa Gorka."
[ see: Reasons for the judgement on 05.09.1946 against Amon Göth in
ibid B 162/1124 page 2307, sic]
The third execution area was a pit near the potato cellar. It was
called no less vulgar "Cipowy Dolek", the female counterpart to
"Hujowa Gorka", in contrast to the picturesque expression "Lipowy
Dolek" The Linden Pit. There 'resistance fighters from the
Underground were shot. They rode in an enclosed vehicle to the edge
of the pit and then let them jump into. At the same time they were
shot by the SS standing around the pit". [Statement Sigmund H.
20/08/1980, in ibid, 162/II26 B, page 2940, sic]
On May 7, 1944 about 10-15 SS officers conducted a "health check"
with the aim by singling out the sick, the elderly and the weak for
the deportation to Auschwitz. SS physician Captain Dr. Maximilian
Blanke led the investigation. He let the inmates at 4 ° C march
naked to the doctor's tables, the men on the parade ground and the
women in front of their barracks. A week later, on May 14, all
selected prisoners were deported from this appraisal to Auschwitz.
That day the sick from the infirmary were also included. The medic
Kaulfuss together with doctors helped the sick to get onto the
transport carriage, which took them to the train station bound for
Auschwitz. A total of about 900 prisoners in this transport were
thus transferred, probably for extermination. [see: Weichert,
Pamietniki; Leon Poliakov/Josef Wulf, Das Dritte Reich und die
Juden-Dokumente und Aufsätze, Berlin 1955, page 286. sic]
Also on 7 May in Plaszow, the "Children's Action" took place. On the
parade ground children under the age of 14 years were assembled.
Their names had to be read out, and those children were not allowed
to go to work. A week later they were sent to Auschwitz to receive
their deaths, together with the smaller ones out of the Kinderheim.
An eyewitness testified:... "We have never seen our Moshe again, it
was immediately known that the whole transport would go to the
crematorium in Auschwitz, it was confirmed later to me by prisoners
from the 'Kanada-commando' in Birkenau, that the children came
directly there. While the boys and girls boarded the vehicles, we
heard a gramophone playing a German children's song about mother's
love. By all accounts, it was on the parade ground just because of
the pointed sub-machine guns of the many guards that no revolt took
place.
In the camp there were only 16 children left: eight children of
privileged prisoners, a girl, Dr. Biberstein had hidden in the
toilet of the infirmary, and five girls and two boys who had been
hiding on that day in the latrine up to their necks in excrement .
Some of these kids went during October 1944 with their parents into
the camp at Brünnlitz in today's Czech Republic, where Oskar
Schindler had moved his factory. Of 294 children in the Plaszow camp
less than 20 survived". [Statement Anna P. 217.1971, in:BArch
Ludwigsburg, B 162/II20, page 1625, sic]
On June 9th a transport from Auschwitz of 5000-6000 Hungarian
Jewesses from the ghetto in Mateschalka arrived. Most of the young
women were in a great panic. They had their hair shaved off and
given grey clothes. The majority of them were assigned to the Depot
Building Commando.
RESISTANCE
Under the leadership of Victor Traubman a conspiratorial group was
formed in the camp by inmates of the 'Zydoska Organizacja Bojowa'
(Yidishe Kampf Organisatzije). Members were among others David
Hertz, Berek Fisher, Jacob Palerer, Victor Reif, Joseph Immerglück,
Monek Hecht, Josef Fuglewicz, Mundek Reich, Samuel Kempler, Adam
Stab, Pesia Warszawska and Czesia Frimat. The trigger to form a cell
was the forcible removal of Jews from Jewish Labour Camps to
Skarzysko-Kamienna in November 1943. They wanted to be prepared in
case of liquidation of their camp. Link to the outside world were
the Polish caterers, that supplied the building materials and mostly
belonged to the Underground. In the wagon itself they could smuggle
goods into the camp, protected from searches by bribes of vodka and
bacon. Inside the bridles of the horses the prisoners hid secret
messages. According to these reports the situation in the camp
reached the outside, including detailed plans of the camp.

The group succeeded to steal two revolvers from the weapons depot in
the camp and from SS man Scheidt two automatic pistols. Samuel
Kempler, who was the [horse] riding instructor and stable manager of
Göth's, had the privilege to leave the camp, during a chance
meeting with a member of the communist Polish Workers' Party (PPR)
by the name of Laptas, he was able to obtain 100 cartridges and
additional guns which he smuggled into the camp. The weapons were
hidden in the metal processing workshops under the floor. From small
sewer pipes and gunpowder (Schwarzpulver) from the quarry, hand
grenades were manufactured. Rumours about the hidden weapons reached
the SS, Adam Stab was arrested and tortured, he betrayed neither
accomplices nor the whereabouts of the weapons. Of his execution on
13 August 1944, the same day that the camp leader Chilowicz and his
wife were killed, several versions have survived. Some report that
he died by hanging, others that Göth shot him. What all stories have
in common is, that Adam Stab, a very young man who showed great
courage and resisted the torture of the SS. [see:Müller-Madej, Das
Mädchen, page 8If, and Biberstein, Zaglada, page 276, sic]
The group also managed in helping some inmates to escape, who then
joined the partisans. With the assistance of bribed guards prisoners
were taken at night hidden under garbage onto the landfill outside.
Among the escapees were two doctors, Dr. Otto Schwarz and Dr.
Romuald Sachs. In the Watch-making Barrack No. 83, a radio was kept
hidden. The Polish civil engineer Boleslaw Kowalski, who worked in
the camp, although he was not a prisoner, and had contacts with an
underground organisations, succeeded in smuggling the three-year old
Jozek Weinstein hidden in a bag in his car outside the camp. [see:
Sliwinski, Periturus, page 79, sic]

About Me

Dachau-Ost, (now living in Auckland), Bavaria=Bayern (Manukau City), New Zealand

It is well known that Dachau is located just North of Munich, Germany. I lived in the old SS-Hospital Haus.No 52B for 10 years. I did publish my German ID but had to delete certain entries due to Identity Theft. I am now living in New Zealand since 1956 my country of adoption, still married at the age of 85 with three great grand children,have three sons and a number of relations in America, Australia, Switzerland and Germany. Otherwise of reasonable heath, although slow in my movements. My hobbies: Travelling to other countries meeting and trying to understand other cultures, supporting a school of street kids in India for the last 25 years.